IDF to Compensate Reservists for Protective Edge

Soldiers to receive up to 15,000 shekels for their time at the front; additional solutions being sought for the self-employed.

Tova Dvorin, 22/10/14 17:58

IDF reservists on the border with Gaza

Reuters

Thousands of reservists will finally receive compensation for their IDF service, the military announced on Wednesday, months after they were called to the front during Operation Protective Edge.

Compensation will begin in December, the IDF said, following a government hearing on the issue.

The maximum compensation will be 15,000 shekel ($4,000) per soldier; additional solutions will be sought for the 5,000 estimated reservists who are currently self-employed in their civilian professions.

Hundreds of reservists who were due to take vacation time abroad during August - which is typically the peak period for vacation in Israel - will also be compensated after presenting documents proving they cancelled their plans, the IDF said.

Last month, the South and reservists called on the IDF and the Ministry of Education to give compensation points to reservists who served during the war who were sitting their Psychometric college entrance exams.

"Every request to take time off was rejected, except for the date of the exam itself," one soldier told IDF Radio. "It makes the situation highly pressured, and we have not received explanation, answers, or options."

Over 80,000 reserve soldiers served in Operation Protective Edge, which extended for fifty days over the summer.

The IDF has made a number of decisions over the past week regarding finances, amid uproar over the compensation as well as a general push to increase the salaries of enlisted soldiers.

The announcement surfaces just days after the IDF announced that soldier's salaries would also be raised, starting in 2015.